A teenage boy opened fire in a school in the capital city of Belgrade on Wednesday morning, killing eight children and a security guard, and leaving several others seriously injured.
According to initial reports, the shooter was a 13-year-old student at the school who had planned the shooting in advance. Officials displayed crumpled pieces of paper that allegedly contained sketches of the attack.
Belgrade’s Police Chief, Veselin Milić, confirmed that seven girls and one boy, as well as a security guard, were killed in the school shooting.
Among the victims was a female student who held French nationality, as stated by the French foreign ministry.
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The suspect opened fire in a history classroom, “because it was near the entrance of the school,” he added during the press briefing.
According to Veselin Milić, the Police Chief of Belgrade, the teenage shooter began the attack by killing the security guard and thereafter proceeded to a different classroom where he fired at some of his fellow students.
Following the shooting, the teenage boy reportedly called the police himself and waited to be arrested in the schoolyard.
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Serbia’s Interior Minister, Bratislav Gasic, said the teenage boy had brought two guns from his home, a 9mm pistol and a small calibre pistol in a bag, along with four Molotov cocktails.
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The shooter apparently knew the code to the secure safe stocked with weapons and was able to access the guns, with each containing 15 bullets.
“The parent had several weapons and kept them locked up. The safe had a code. Obviously, the kid had the code as soon as he managed to get hold of those two guns and three frames full of 15 bullets each.”
Serbian officials have reported that the parents of the suspect were taken into custody for investigations.
As reported by CNN affiliate N1, the father of one of the students attending the school explained the shock and trauma while he went to search for his child after realising what had just transpired.
“I was heading to the bank, and I saw a bunch of police. That was around 8:50. I came running. I saw the school psychologist, I saw the school staff, the teachers who were in shock,” the father told N1.
The incident has once again raised questions about the availability of guns and other weapons in Serbia, and the need for stricter laws and regulations to prevent such tragedies from occurring in the future.
